Another Ruthie blog post was in order. This crazy, determined girl has a new skill:

Can you believe it? I'm a bit in shock. She's had a little balance bike she likes to ride around on, but that was getting a little short for her. Her balance seemed pretty good on that so I thought we would give the pedal bike a go. I can't say I had a lot of patience to teach her, I kept getting frustrated when she would stop pedaling and tell her we were waiting until she was a bit older. But then she would get frustrated at me because she was really determined to learn and wanted me to keep helping her. She wants to keep up with the big girls. She can't get started on her own, and has a ways to go before she's just riding around the courtyard in laps on her own, but I'd say she's doing pretty good.

One more video:

I'm excited to have three kids riding their own bikes. That feels like a huge milestone as a parent! Ruthie has been wanting to ride her balance bike when we go to pick up Anna lately, and has even ridden all the way home twice, over two miles! But it's slow. I'm pretty much walking my bike behind her. And Anna and Josie get tired of riding a few feet and then waiting. Riding her own two wheeler will let Ruthie be a part of everything but will still allow us to get home in a decent amount of time. Soon, that is. She's not ready for a long bike ride yet. But soon! Good job little miss Ruthie. We're all proud of you.

I'm sold on the idea of learning to ride a two-wheel bike in the winter. Long pants and mittens means no scraped knees, no scraped hands, no tears, soft falls into the snow... By the time warm weather hits we'll be past the dangerous stages. I'd recommend it to any parent.